We’ve always known that our social media efforts were not enough to get our message across to all South Africans. We realised long ago that the demography and socio-economic circumstances of the vast majority of South Africans preclude them from the information superhighway. The bottom line is that there are less than 5 million people over 18 on Facebook in South Africa.. We can see things are changing with the huge impact ‘mobi’ has had with all the smart phone technology springing up. We need to reach the majority of prospective supporters and one of the ways to do that is to get in the car and go visit them, hence our two week road trip to the Eastern and Western Cape, stopping in Bloemfontein on the way.

We set off with three gigs in the bag. Bloemfontein, and two nights in Cape town. As we started the long drive down the N1 we didn’t even have a presentation. The upside of driving the length of the country on the N1 is it gives you plenty of time to think. We put together a powerpoint presentation in the car and planned things as we went along. We work in the film industry and it felt as if we were writing the script all the way.

Our first ever evening screening outside The Jazzfarm in Jo’burg was in Bloem. The Free State hospitality set the pace for the whole journey. Francois our Flower City rep used the limited amount of time we’d given him to arrange  a venue, advertise our impending short notice visit, cooked dinner with his flatmate and gave us his room for the night. Francois and Emanuel, Guitarists extraordinaire and the line up in  MANOUE, we thank you for your hard work and hospitality.

We’d given ourselves two days between Bloem and our first night in Cape Town to fine tune our notes and plan ahead. We entered Cape Town with 18 appointments booked over 5 days. We met all manner of interesting people, true to the nature of the SA Dagga community, from people in suits to people in slops. We held a screening on the Roof of the Penthouse on Long Backpackers, 6 floors above Long St and were stoked to have 60 people come through the door. AND it was raining. We’d fleeced the fund for more printing than we’ve ever done before – English and Afrikaans, stickers, posters, DVDs.  We sold some InfoPacks and stickers on the night to float the boat, and started to relax a bit.

We can do this!

Rarely do Myrtle and I get to Cape town together. Usually we’re here independently for film work, straight in and out stuff, so for us to be now be driving through the city bowl as ‘Dagga activists’ was more than surreal. On the move mobile tools working flat out to keep us in full communication with our world and putting the jigsaw puzzle of  10 presentations in 9 towns over 14 days together. Stupid stoners huh?

We were blessed to meet Ras. Gareth Prince one morning in the quiet of the National Library. Here in front of us was the only person to have ever taken a ‘Dagga’ issue to the SA Constitutional Court before. You may recall his request to be able to, as a Rastafarian, use the Dagga plant as a sacrament AND practice law, was politely turned down 5-4 against in 2001. He is again in the Cape Town courts defending himself in yet another ‘bust’ at his Simonstown home. We wish him well and are convinced our paths will cross again in the future.

And so the meetings and greetings went. We met an ethnobotanical practitioner who understands the healing powers of the Dagga plant. We met an empathetic lawyer with some very high profile Dagga cases behind his name. We also met the man who’d escaped with a fat suspended sentence after a ‘massive’ bust in the city. We also met our Cape Town online partners, the heroes that give the DC a percentage off the top for the cause.
We were immediately noticed by someone during a rare visit to a shopping mall. Someone made a beeline straight towards us, could have had any manner of things running through his brain, but thankfully he only wanted to shake our hands…

After our second Cape Town screening at Zula Bar, again on Long St, Jeremy Acton of  The Dagga Party spoke passionately about solidarity and moves to protect the African cannabis seed genome. He plans to go national with the Dagga Party in the 2014 elections and needs the Dagga communities help getting signatures for the ballot. Of course we’ll help. Solidarity is the key. Cape Town is home to a large number of  supporters. City of smokers!

Our last dinner appointment in Cape Town was with Lindsay Martin. Here’s another classic example of knowing someone online for what seems like years but never really met in person. Lindsay you’ll remember used cannabis oil to successfully treat stage four colon cancer. It’s now 14 months later and sitting down to dinner with her and husband Brett was another highlight of our roadtrip. Brave lady indeed. We didn’t stop talking for a minute.

We left Cape Town’s whirlwind of appointments and set a sedate pace up the Sir Lowry Pass and into the Boland. Inland. As Somerset West disappeared out the view we were grateful to our Cape Town, fixer and mixer Imiël Visser from IDKraft.com and Cape Town NORML representative. He tunes our interweb, does artwork changes on the fly while we’re driving, books free venues for us and gets people through the doors. Couldn’t do it without you Imiël. Good luck with the Cape Town Global Marijuana March on Saturday May 4th. 

A Klein Karoo Route 62 epic late afternoon drive was a great backdrop to collect our thoughts. Sure was pretty through the Tradouw Pass. Next stop Barrydale. We’d promised Alex, one of our oldest and most active supporters, we’d pay his town a visit. The Barrydale Hotel said “sure, we can host the DC, but don’t tell anyone in case the police rock up”. Hmmm…. That wasn’t going to work, but we always understand the predicament we were putting people in. What to do with the Dagga activists! It’s such a new concept, people don’t know how to treat us. we don’t really know either.

We were eventually invited into a the home of a gentleman who’d had a run in with the legendary Barrydale politzi over some hashish some weeks ago. More solidarity, home cooked pasta and a very attentive albeit small, audience of clandestine smokers. The message was getting out to all the different strata of South African society and a visit to the tranquility of Barrydale after our whistle stop tour of Cape Town  was much needed. We even got to hear a live squeezebox Boere musiek band in the hotel later that evening….We’re glad we visited Alex. Thanks for all your support in the background.

Judah Square is one of the county’s largest and oldest Rastafari communities in Khayalethu South, a suburb of Knysna and home to over 100 practicing Rastas. We were blessed to be welcomed by the elders of the community and to show them some movies and photos and discuss our legal challenge. Ras. MauMau, the Kenyan chef cooked us a stunning meal as we were talking late into the night. This community has to be one of the most persecuted and marginalized population group in the country. The police just don’t let up. Everyone we met had been arrested for small amounts of Dagga countless times. Again, solidarity was the aim of the game and we felt honoured to be welcomed as VIP’s into their community.

We stayed at The Bamboo Guesthouse in Knysna, a hot tip from a Barrydale resident. Once the Bamboo staff realised who we were, we got a 60% discount on our stay. Incredible. We’d been on the road for over a week and only paid for 2 and a third nights accommodation! Thank you Bamboo for the tranquility of your beautiful gardens. As we were leaving Knysna, a Facebook message suggested it would be a good idea for us to be at the Total garage by 9am. We were, and so was a local supporter who filled up our tank for us. Epic. Knysna, you rock.

Next up, the windy city, and we assure you, Port Elizabeth was firing on all six. We’d forgotten winds like this exist, living as we do on the Highveld. The bar our local reps had organised for the evening’s presentation was a shady looking place filled with really lekker, like minded people. What struck us was the cross section of people who came to our presentation. All population groups from all walks of life listened to what we had to say and, predictably by now, we didn’t leave the building ’till late. So many busts, so many sad stories, so much persecution for small amounts. There was a local DJ in the crowd who listened to every word…maybe something will come of that and the highlight of the event was speaking to a serving member of the SA Police Services who uses  Dagga to control his PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder) after being shot on active duty some years ago. The more we talk to the cops, the more we are realising there are only a few thugs who just want some sort of  glory and promotion by nailing soft target Dagga users. We’re convinced there are many in the police force who know prohibition is a crock…. By the time we reached Grahamstown we’d been on the road 12 days and had managed to out run that crazy coastal wind.

The Grocott Mail, the oldest independent newspaper in the country, were the first to have our attention. We were happy to answer questions while we unpacked the office once again. We’ve had some long standing reps at Rhodes university and they proved their worth by organising a jam packed room full of people. Standing room only in a downtown nightclub. It was by far the biggest turn out so far and again, really attentive people with intelligent questions and lots of note taking. As Myrtle was talking I thought to myself….”look at what we’ve manifested”. The leaders of tomorrow are gathered in a room to help put a nail in the prohibition coffin. We politely declined the 2kw dub step party that kicked off moments after we’d finished – for that’s what we were…..f inished. A surprisingly lekker pie at the late night gas station and a dreamless sleep.

Neither of us could really remember if we’d been to East London over the years. I seem to remember getting gas and leaving again once long ago. As we walked round a corner in the mall and saw the venue, a raucous Thursday evenings drinking was underway. TV’s blaring a cross section of sport and altogether an alien place to be if you’re a Dagga activist, it would seem. As we stepped through the door the power dropped in the whole mall. No pressure. Grahamstown was always going to be a tough act to follow….

Ironically, Raggies Sport Bar was only one of two places we needed a serious PA and it was the just as well we could use theirs. Noisy sports bar neighbours combined with arbitrary one arm bandits to compete with. Again, we were delighted with the turnout, meeting online characters in the flesh for the first time. Even converted a few borderline non believers by the end of the night. Dagga talk, dagga talk dagga talk. It was exhausting, but so gratifying to be influential in getting the conversation started. Once the DC entered the building, we hardly spoke to each other until we got back in the car, so swept away with all the individual attention we gave and received. More stories of arrests, busts  and strange situations.

We were now very close to the Transkei border. one of SA’s major growing regions. It’s a bit like the wild west that side by the sounds of  things. The police that side don’t even bother arresting people anymore – they just take your dope. No rules.

The last two days of our appointments we were thankful to Ras. Warren John Smith and his wife Shenade for opening their home to us in King Williams Town. Warren is one our our most ardent supporters and we used  KWT as a base to visit the area’s Rastafari.  Also to spend more time in the Eastern Cape listening to the stories unfold about the area and it’s proximity to the major routes out of the growing areas.

Our final presentation was with Ras. Percy and the KWT Rastafari venue in Sweetwaters township. It felt like right up to the end we were reaching the people we’d set out to find in the first place, hand out information and DVD’s, listen to people’s stories,  and sow the seed of changing  perceptions towards the Dagga plant. We didn’t talk to a huge crowd at Ras Percy’s but it hardly mattered. The small dance hall was full enough and it warmed us to see the reactions to our movie and news of our case. We inspired the group, reminded them all that they have rights and told them how they could stand up for them.

There’s some video footage of our journey. It’s a bit taxing to shoot yourself in your own movie constantly, but we’ve got the outline of a Roadtrip Dagga doccie. Another editing project.

As we set off on this trip we received a considerable donation, one the largest we’ve had to date. It ensured we wouldn’t come back home broke. We thank those who contributed to funding the revolution. 

More printing is underway, more plans are hatching, more networks are being hard wired and more Infopacks are on the way.

Now that we are home we are following up on connections made as our net widens its reach. Cementing these connections into working relationships for the cause is the next step. We’ll be catching up with legal stuff and earning a living over the next weeks then we’ll plan the next trip… KZN, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and the north, Northern Cape… we’ll get to you as soon as we can.